Beckindale 1983 - Behind The Scenes...

I know several actors, and, for the majority, it's a funny old life. There they are, one month serving in a wine bar or doing a Christmas temp job at Boots, the next doing a bit-part in Emmerdale, the next "resting", the next auditioning for a stage play and probably not getting the part...

Of course, for many actors a regular role in a long-running soap is a dream (and for some, given current standards of a lot of the plots, it's also a nightmare), but back in the 1980s it was a funny old life working on Emmerdale Farm or Coronation Street or whatever. Today, much soap drama depends on the out of the ordinary, the bizarre, the downright absurd, but back in the 1980s the majority of soap action centred on people nattering about, and doing, everyday things.

And that must have been exceedingly difficult to convey with a load of technical paraphernalia all around, plus being watched and directed by a load of people the actors had to pretend didn't exist.

Here's Jean Rogers (Dolly Skilbeck since 1980), Sheila Mercier (Annie Sugden since episode one), Toke Townley (Grandad Sam Pearson since episode one) and Frederick Pyne and Frazer Hines (Matt Skilbeck and Joe Sugden - both original cast members) standing around in the rain at a Beckindale event in 1983, with little Sam Skilbeck (born 1982) out of vision, apparently asleep in his pram.

Annie's plastic headscarf (14p from Woolies - a snip!) is such an important style detail in setting the tone.

Just how "everyday" and of their time the cast looks, and the fact that they are conversing in character, apparently oblivious of the onlookers and the sound boom hovering above, is something I find fascinating.

Skill, or what?

1983: Wild Oats Farm - And Old Walter's Saying Nowt!

Sunday Mirror, June 26, 1983:

Look out, Coronation Street and Dallas - Emmerdale Farm is on your trail! ITV's "forgotten soap opera" is back in the TV top ten ratings, with a British audience of between nine and twelve million a week.

It has a prime evening showing in most ITV areas except Thames. The programmes cast and makers argue that if Emmerdale Farm got a proper showing in the London area it would be a serious challenge to Coronation Street and Crossroads. The tale of everyday life on a Yorkshire farm has millions of followers in places as far away as Egypt and Sweden.

We went to find out why the world is hooked on the goings-on behind the gritty grim exteriors of the village of Beckindale.

At this time, Rosie Kerslake was coming to the end of her role as vicar's daughter, Barbara Peters, who had set the village aflame with gossip by having an affair with Joe Sugden. Barbara was married, although estranged from her husband.

Said Ms Kerslake:

"I'd like to think I'm more patient and less insensitive than Barbara. At times she can be bloody-minded and tough. I'm nothing like as tough as she is."

Frazer Hines was also bowing out, although he would return later in the decade.

Ian Sharrock said of Jackie Merrick: "It was great when I was going around being objectionable, burning caravans down and smashing things. I was really horrible. Now, though, the character has calmed down a bit, and personally I'm just a little sad. It was all right Jackie Merrick being Yorkshire's answer to James Dean providing he could grow up to be a sort of JR in wellies. But if he's going to be very mature and responsible from now on, I think I'll wind up disliking him intensely!"

Meanwhile that much-loved silent Beckindale hero of the earlyto mid-80s was attracting much attention. Yep, fans had signed a "give Walter summat to say petition". But Al Dixon, the man behind the legend, said: "I'd be out of Emmerdale if I ever spoke any lines."

1980: Joe Goes To NY Estates

Matt, Jack and Joe in the Emmerdale Land Rover, 1980.

When Joe Sugden (Frazer Hines) returned to England from his stay in America with Ed Hathersage in the summer of 1980, he found that Jack (Clive Hornby), who had returned in February, appeared to be settling in at the farm.

The purchase of two Friesian cows by Jack had been agreed with Joe via telephone, but he knew they were something that could not have been afforded when he was farm manager.

Jack had bought them out of own money.

Joe had enjoyed running the farm, but the presence of his brother meant that he was no longer in charge. And Jack had very different approaches to farming and the land: Jack was an emotional idealist, Joe a pragmatic, go-ahead farmer who believed that sentiment should not stand in the way of progress.

After a couple of drinking sessions with NY Estates boss Richard Anstey (Carl Rigg), Joe was amazed when Richard offered him the job of manager of the NY farms in Beckindale.

Joe was tempted: NY was go-ahead, heartlessly so, certain people said, and the job would be a challenge...

It would also be a way of breaking free of the faintly uneasy atmosphere at Emmerdale Farm. Who was in charge? And how long would it be before Joe and Jack fell out? Joe discussed things with Annie (Sheila Mercier) and Jack, and decided to take the job.

Annie would never have dreamt of influencing her son's decision either way, but she found his absence from Emmerdale difficult. As did Sam Pearson (Toke Townley), who was also hurt that Joe had not consulted him. But Joe had not wanted to worry his grandfather about something that may not happen. As it was, he handled things quite badly and Sam was upset.

The house was quiet without Joe, but after a few visits from him, Sam and Annie began to perk up.

Trouble at NY - Sergeant MacArthur (Martin Dale) made his first appearance in December 1980, investigating the theft of Christmas trees from the NY Estates plantation.

Meanwhile, at NY Estates, Joe found the closing months of 1980 were certainly interesting: Jack disagreed with NY's decision to tear out an old hedgerow - which led to heated words with Joe, the Estate workers joined the union and gained a 5% pay rise, and Joe put forward the idea of hormone injection trials for the cattle: twelve steers would be tested, six injected with the hormones and six not, then compared after a six month period. Cowman Daniel Hawkins (Alan Starkey), who had been at Home Farm since the days of the Verney family, disagreed with this "unnatural" idea, but the trials began. Only 1981 would tell whether hormone injections for the NY Estates Beckindale cattle were to be impemented on a permanent basis.

Christmas trees were stolen from the NY plantation, and Joe was nearly run over by the thieves' van - Tom Merrick (Edward Peel) and Derek Warner (Freddie Fletcher) were the bad lads behind the theft.

As 1980 ended, Joe seemed to be settling in at NY - fraught though his first few months had been. He had a finger in two pies, still being on the board of Emmerdale Farm Ltd, and the future promised many more challenges.

In 1989, Joe told his mother that Jack had thrown him off the farm in 1980. This wasn't the absolute truth, but there was no doubt that Jack's return to the farm had seriously put Joe's nose out of joint. It is highly unlikely that Joe's move to NY would have happened had Jack stayed away from Emmerdale.

But for Beckindale the move led to lots of fascinating gossip, and for Emmerdale Farm viewers some highly enjoyable storylines.

1987: No Nukes In Beckindale...

A public meeting at The Woolpack, chaired by the Rev Donald Hinton (Hugh Manning), Henry Wilks (Arthur Pentelow) and Alan Turner (Richard Thorp) was dominated by the brothers Sugden...

Jack (Clive Hornby) saw the prospect of the nuclear dump as something to fight. There was no question about it:

"If they can prove to us that the ground around here is as solid as they say it is, bring on the nuclear waste!" he sneered.

"We'll all be happy, reason has won the day! Well, try telling that to farmers in the Dales who've got young lambs registering on the gieger counter! Our only course is to fight so that they can't come to Beckindale to talk or to do tests or to do one damn thing! And that's what we've got to believe. Everybody that lives here."

He looked at his brother Joe (Frazer Hines), standing quietly at the bar.

"And that means EVERYBODY!"

Joe pointed out that this was 1987. Did that mean we wanted radiation? Jack fumed.

Joe did not approve of Jack's outlook. He wanted an objective debate about the proposed nuclear waste dump. The "burning haystacks" method of blind resistance Jack favoured struck no sympathetic chord in Joe.

Feelings were running high in in Beckindale, and another public meeting, this time at the village hall and attended by a representative of the nuclear dump backers, took an unexpected turn when a coffin bearing a radiactive warning symbol was carried in.

"You claim that the risks of nuclear waste are no greater than smoking one cigarette a year," said Jackie Merrick (Ian Sharrock) to the nuclear "yes" man.

And cigarette smoke began to rise from a hole in the coffin lid.

And the coffin lid was pushed aside.

And a skeleton emerged.

A skeleton which sounded amazingly like Archie Brooks (Tony Pitts):

"Well, I think I'd rather have one fag a year than your waste on my doorstep!" it said.

Of course, smoking the fag to make this point was no hardship to Archie - a devoted smoker back then.

The 1987 Emmerdale Farm nuclear waste dump story-line was based on a true story, and hailed as a major step forward in the politicisation of soap.

1989: Kim Tate Arrives...

Seth Armstrong (Stan Richards) was, of course, always a kindly, helpful soul. On meeting a newcomer to the village on horseback one day in December 1989, he noted the "posh" way she spoke, noted she was a stranger to the area, noted she was seeking directions to Home Farm, and decided to have some fun.

The newcomer on horseback was Mrs Kim Tate (Claire King), wife of the new owner of Home Farm, Frank Tate (Norman Bowler). Mrs Tate had set out from Skipdale on a bet with step-daughter, Zoe (Leah Bracknell). The two would both try and reach their new home at Home Farm on horseback, and who ever won the bet would get a quid.

Seth described a very circuitous route to Home Farm, all up hill and down dale...

He was laughing about his trick to Bill Whiteley (Teddy Turner) later in The Woolpack, reckoning that Mrs Tate would probably be halfway to Harrogate by now, when a voice from just behind him stated firmly: "Oh no I'm not!"

And there was Kim, on her first but certainly not last visit to The Woolpack Inn.

Kim was not amused by Seth's mischief. Her horse was exhausted by its hard ride over the surrounding countryside.

Mine host Amos Brearly (Ronald Magill) had discovered he had bats in the attic in 1980. In 1989, he had bats in the belfry. Who else but '80s Amos could have dreamt up the idea of turning Dracula into a pantomime? And who else could write such dialogue as: "Fee fo fi fum, me thinks I'll drink the blood of an Englishman" for Dracula to say?

Taking a break from his epic work, Amos emerged into the bar to discover Henry Wilks (Arthur Pentelow) and Dolly Skilbeck (Jean Rogers) hard at work, and a strange woman standing on the public side of the bar with Seth and Bill. And not only that but a strange woman who had left a horse on his forecourt. Horses were not allowed on The Woolpack forecourt!

"Mr Wilks - fetch the shovel!" yelped Amos, hurrying outside.

Henry ushered Kim outside, where Amos let her have it - both barrels - she must remove the horse forthwith!

"Horses are not allowed on Woolpack property under any circumstances whatsoever!"

Zoe had caught up with Kim, and the two women rode off together.

Henry then informed Amos that these woman were two members of the new family at Home Farm.

Amos was horrified. He wanted to keep in well with the local "gentry" - and besides that he'd already met Frank Tate and he was financing Dracula!

"Ladies! Ladies!" whined Amos, but it was too late - Kim and Zoe continued on their way.

Kim's next port of call was Emmerdale Farm, where she tethered her horse in the farmyard and knocked at the farmhouse door. Giving barely a few seconds for her knock to be answered, she set off to search for the farm owner.

A moment later, Annie Sugden (Sheila Mercier) emerged and was surprised to find no sign of a visitor, but a horse in the yard...

Kim came across Joe Sugden (Frazer Hines) at work in an outbuilding.

"Excuse me, can you tell me where I can find the owner?"

"Who's asking?"

"Is anybody round here capable of answering a simple question?" Kim was getting annoyed.

"Tell you what, let's start again, eh?" said Joe.

Kim explained to Joe that her horse was exhausted, and that she was trying to get to Home Farm. Had Joe got a horse box?

No, replied Joe, but he could get one.

Thank goodness!" said Kim.

As Joe loaded the horse into the horse box, Annie re-emerged from the farmhouse.

"Were you the person who thumped on my door?"

"I knocked, yes, but there was nobody in," said Kim.

"Well there was actually," Annie was slightly cold. She told Kim that she had been working at the top of the house. "And when I got to the kitchen door, all I could see was a horse. Huh!"

And Annie went indoors again, clearly unimpressed.

This was Emmerdale episode 1411, broadcast on 12 December 1989.

And Kim's introduction to Beckindale.

The 1980s were coming to an end. But before the decade died, newcomers were arriving in Beckindale who would ensure life would never be the same again.

Emmerdale 1989: Annie Sugden Goes Dancing, Amos Brearly Gets Into Crop Circles, Alan Turner Becomes Nick Kamen And Rachel Hughes Plays With Fire...

Here we take the time tunnel back to 1989 - a highly dramatic year which saw, amongst other things, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the invention of the World Wide Web, which would bring computers into all our lives in the 1990s.

Below are some extracts from an Emmerdale Farm script - episode 1390, broadcast on 28 September 1989. My copy of the script was used by actor Martin Dale, Police Sergeant Ian MacArthur in the show from 1980 to 1994.

At Emmerdale Farm, Annie Sugden (Sheila Mercier) enjoys a mug of cocoa with Eddie Hughes (Geoffrey Banks), father of Annie's daughter-in-law, Kate (Sally Knyvette):

SC. 2. INT. FARM PARLOUR. NIGHT. 3.

TIME: 22.15 EDDIE AND ANNIE ON THE SOFA WITH COCOA.

ANNIE: Are you sure you didn't mind leaving the dance early?

EDDIE: No, no. Once they start into the Latin American I've had it anyway. How's your knees?

ANNIE: Better than they deserve to be. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed dancing. You're very good, Eddie.

EDDIE: Aye, I know. Used to go down the Conservative Club.

ANNIE: (TEASING) And what's a good steelworker doing down the Conservative Club, may I ask?

EDDIE: (GRIN) Using the dance floor. It were a good one. (BEAT) You should come and try it.

ANNIE: Sorry?

EDDIE: Come and stay for a weekend, and I'll take you dancing again. They'll not miss you for a day or two.

ANNIE: (GENTLE) Thanks, Eddie, but I don't think so. If you don't mind.

EDDIE: As long as you don't mind me asking.

ANNIE: I'm very flattered.

EDDIE: So you should be. I've not asked a lass back for a weekend since before the war. She said no as well. (BEAT) It's quiet here, isn't it? Where is everybody?

ANNIE: Still down at the pub, I imagine. They always have a bit of a celebration come harvest home.

At The Woolpack Inn, Amos Brearly (Ronald Magill) ponders a mystery, whilst Mr Wilks exhibits signs of jealousy...

SC. 4. INT. WOOLPACK BAR. NIGHT. 3.

TIME: 23.15

AMOS AND WILKS CLOSING AND CLEARING UP.

AMOS: I don't understand it, Mr Wilks. One minute it's standing room and mind your backs, next minute it's like the Marie Celeste. What's going on?

WILKS: (DISINTERESTED) No idea.

AMOS: It's that beer. First thing in the morning I'm writing a strong letter to the brewery.

WILKS: You do that.

AMOS: Joe, Matt. (BEAT) Jock and Bill. I mean usually I have to take the yard-broom to 'em. Even Annie and her Eddie only stayed -

WILKS: He is not her Eddie, he's - he's a visitor. She only left because she'd promised to go to some daft dance with him.

AMOS: Yes, I know, I'm sorry.

WILKS: Sorry? No need to say sorry to me, Amos. No skin off my nose.

AMOS: No, but -

WILKS: The person that should be saying sorry is that Eddie. Dragging her off like that. She's not the dancing sort. Too polite for her own good.

With Denis Rigg dead and the harvest at Home Farm unharvested, locals move to bring it in. When Annie Sugden finds out, she is furious and wastes no time in giving her family a tongue lashing. Matt Skilbeck (Frederick Pyne) is one of those on the receiving end:

ANNIE: Well? What have you got to say for yourselves?

KATE: Sorry, I'm not with you.

ANNIE: Oh yes you are, my girl. You're part of this family now, and what goes for them goes for you too.

JOE: Now hang on a minute -

ANNIE: You be quiet! I'm ashamed of the lot of you!

MATT: But what have we done?

Annie: (BEAT) Taken me for a fool for a start. D'you seriously think I've not heard the talk of the Home Farm wheat? And d'you seriously think when I hear the machinery coming into the yard at midnight I can't put two and two together? Did you get permission?

JOE: Hardly.

ANNIE: Then it's theft. Plain and simple.

JOE: It's not a simple theft at all, Ma, it's... it's - getting a harvest in! We haven't thoight about what to do with it yet.

ANNIE: (CYNICAL) Oh aye?

KATE: Nobody's been told to harvest. Have you forgotten the damage Rigg and his lot did to us? That was worse than theft!

ANNIE: (NOT QUITE SO CERTAIN) Two wrongs don't make a right and never did!

JOE: They owe us, Ma.

MATT: It'll rot where it stands if we don't get it in.

ANNIE: What d'you mean it WILL rot? Have you not finished?

JOE: (BEAT) Not quite.

Matt (LOW) You're not going to tell us to leave it, are you Ma?

ON ANNIE MAKING A DIFFICULT DECISION.

CUT TO...

Teenager Rachel Hughes (Glenda McKay) and married man Pete Whiteley (Jim Millea) are beginning an ill-fated love affair...

PETE: I am glad you came over.

RACHEL: Are you?

PETE: Yes.

RACHEL: Didn't have much choice really.

PETE: What d'you mean?

RACHEL: Just what I say. I don't seem to be in control any more. When you whistle I come running.

PETE: It's the same for me.

RACHEL: (SHAKES HEAD, SMILES) I don't think it is.

PETE: Alright, I don't run. I drive. I sit outside schools.

RACHEL: How did you know I'd come out?

PETE: (SHRUGS) I didn't. I just had to chance it.

RACHEL: (STATEMENT, NOT QUESTION) It's not just a one night stand, is it.

PETE: Doesn't look like it.

RACHEL: (WHISPER) Good. (BEAT) It's funny. Specially being here. Sometimes I hate Lynn.

PETE: Why?

RACHEL: I don't know. Straight jealousy, I suppose. She's got you and I haven't. I keep wanting to tell her what a good thing she's got.

PETE LOOKS ALARMED.

RACHEL: Don't worry, I won't. (LAUGH) It's pathetic, really, isn't it! Not rocking the boat 'cause you know you'll be the first one overboard if you do.

Amos - seen in our picture with Walter (Al Dixon) in 1985 - thinks that aliens are visiting Beckindale as crop circles hit the 1989 headlines and a field at Home Farm. He gets Mr Winstanley, an enthusiast from a local university, to come and have a look at them. Accompanied by Bill Whiteley (Teddy Turner) they make their way to the Home Farm field:

TIME: 13.30

AMOS, WHITELEY AND WINSTANLEY ARE WALKING TOWARDS THE FIELD. THEY DO NOT SEE AT FIRST THAT IT IS NOW HARVESTED.

WHITELEY: T'others have been taking the mickey out of Amos - reckoning it were space ships or some such twaddle.

AMOS: (QUICKLY) What ignorant folk say, Bill Whiteley, is of no interest to intelligentsia. Mr Winstanley here'll soon be able to make up his own mind. (HE TAKES OUT A NOTEBOOK) I measured them, you know. They were twenty one foot precisely... or as precisely as I could measure not having a measure with me, but happen you'll have one of those... and they were... (SMILES) Well, you can see for yourself.

THEY GO THROUGH A GATE/OVER A STYLE AND ARRIVE AT FIELD.

ALL THREE STARE AT A FIELD OF STUBBLE. AMOS GOBSMACKED.

AMOS: Heck.

WINSTANLEY RAISES HIS EYEBROWS QUIZZICALLY. AMOS SCURRIES INTO THE FIELD.

AMOS: Honestly, Mr Winstanley. This was the centre of one, (PACING, GESTICULATING) and... and it reached over to about here... and there was another one just that way... and a third one over there... (HE LOOKS HOPEFULLY AT WINSTANLEY, BUT THERE IS NO RESPONSE). You know, like I said, in a sort of triangle. (HE LOOKS DOWN) Look, look, if you come here you can still see where some of the stubble's bent over.

WHITELEY: That's 'cause you've stood on it.

CUT TO...

Nick Kamen thrilled the girlies by stripping off his jeans in the famous ad of the mid-1980s. Emmerdale had its own version of this scenario in 1989, as Mrs Bates (Diana Davies) returned to the house in Beckindale she shared with Alan Turner, unexpectedly bringing her mother, Alice (Olivia Jardith). Thanks to Seth Armstrong (Stan Richards), Alan had got landed with doing some (literally) dirty work for a change and he arrived home, tired and unkempt.

TIME 16.03

TURNER STANDS IN THE KITCHEN, PUTTING KETTLE ON, TAKING SOCKS AND SHOES OFF, FOLLOWED BY SHIRT AND TROUSERS, WHICH HE BUNDLES INTO WASHING MACHINE IN THE MANNER OF THE "LEVI 501" AD. IT IS NOT A PRETTY SIGHT. AS HE IS REMOVING HIS TROUSERS, ALICE PASSES THE DOORWAY, AND GASPS IN UNDERSTANDABLE SURPRISE. TURNER JUMPS OUT OF HIS SKIN AND PULLS TROUSERS UP AGAIN.

TURNER: Who the devil are you?

CUT TO...

Other events of the episode...

Amos discovered that Mr Winstanley, the man he believed was a university professor interested in crop circles, was actually a university caretaker; Eric Pollard (Christopher Chittell) got wind of the harvesting going on at Home Farm and began to make comments; Joe wanted Kate to have a baby. They talked and Kate confessed that she was finding it hard to give up her independence and that although she was happy to be married to Joe, she also felt invaded...

The Curse Of The Sugdens

This blog is about Emmerdale Farm in the 1980s. However, sometimes it is necessary to pop into the neighbouring decades to get a complete view of a trend which was prevelant in the '80s. In the early 1990s, Joe Sugden began to wonder if the Sugdens were cursed. Why on earth should he think such a thing? Joe mentioned an old tale about a curse being put on the Sugden family. But his primary reason for pondering the possibility was the extraordinary amount of bad luck the family had experienced.

The serial began with a funeral in 1972 - wastrel head of family Jacob Sugden had died. Shortly following him, in 1973, was his daughter Peggy, (third from left in the top photograph). She died suddenly a few months after the birth of twins, Sam and Sally.

Here are the twins howling miserably away during a "jolly" photographic session at the farm. Had they whiffed the grim portents of doom headed their way? The twins lived at the farm after their mother's death, but later went to live with their father's aunt, Beattie Dowton, and her husband. In 1976, Beattie and the children were killed when her car stalled at a level crossing and was hit by a train.

The family was touched by tragedy again in 1977 when Jim Gimbel, the father of Joe's girlfriend, Kathy, shot himself in shame at the couple "living in sin".

The '80s brought more tragedy - with Dolly Skilbeck losing two babies, the first at an advanced stage of the pregnancy, the second an early miscarriage. Grandad Sam Pearson died peacefully in his sleep in November 1984, having spent the previous night celebrating his pumpkin winning first prize in the village's annual show. Daughter Annie discovered his passing when she took a cup of tea up to his room the following morning. The actor Toke Townley had died in real life and it was a very sad time for all concerned with Emmerdale Farm, including the viewers.

1986, and Pat Sugden was driving along quite happily when she rounded a bend in the road and saw her way blocked by a flock of sheep.

Her car plunged off the road, off the hillside, and she was killed.

"What Have I Done To Deserve This?" intoned the car radio, as young Jackie Merrick lay dead in 1989. He had been on the trail of a troublesome fox, out to win a bet. Sadly, his gun trigger snagged and he shot and killed himself.

.

As the '90s came in, the Sugdens were more troubled than ever. Joe's wife, Kate, ran over and killed Pete Whiteley in 1990. She went to prison. In 1993, Emmerdale Farmhouse began to subside - it had apparently been built on an old mine. The family moved out, an era ended.

.

Better luck now? Nope, the nutty "all done in the best possible taste" (NOT) plane crash story was next, wiping out more friends and family.

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So, Joe had good reason to ponder on the possibility of a curse of the Sugdens. Mind you, he didn't ponder long. He was killed in a car crash in 1995.

1989: Beckindale Gets Knitting - Again...

1989... the year Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web, the Berlin Wall came down, Acid House Raves rocked youth culture, Sky TV was launched and, over in America, Game Boy arrived...

And the year also brought a new knitting book from Emmerdale Farm, the first since 1983. Out came the needles across the land.

On the cover were Kate (Sally Knyvette) and Joe (Frazer Hines) Sugden. After a stormy relationship, they tied the knot in '89, but married life was not to be peaceful as Kate found her organic venture at Crossgill beset by slugs, and her daughter, Rachel (Glenda McKay) tumbled into an affair with married Pete Whiteley (Jim Millea).

A traumatic year for Dolly (Jean Rogers) and son Sam Skilbeck (Benjamin Whitehead), also on the knitting book cover, as the Skilbeck marriage finally broke up. For Amos Brearly (Ronald Magill) there was irritation as Mr Wilks (Arthur Pentelow) developed hay fever and sneezed his way through the summer...

Evolution not revolution was the apparent intention of Emmerdale Farm producer Stuart Doughty, the man from Brookside, featured in the knitting book wearing a charming jumper. He took the producer's chair in 1988. His reign saw tense drama in Beckindale in 1989, and the arrival of the Tate family at Home Farm in November of that year.

1989 also saw the deletion of the word "Farm" from the show's title, as Doughty decided to begin dropping some of the farming content - and to reflect the fact that a lot of the show was not actually about the farm.

From a temporary bit-part in 1978, to full-time character status in 1980, Seth Armstrong (Stan Richards) spent quite a lot of 1989 baiting Amos Brearly. Situation normal.

Kathy Merrick (Malandra Burrows) - looking charming in a lovely '80s cardie. The poor girl faced the tragic loss of her husband, Jackie (Ian Sharrock) in 1989 - he accidentally shot himself whilst hunting a troublesome fox.

Amos and Mr Wilks - a stormy year at The Woolpack as Amos realised just how irritating Mr Wilks was (!!!!). He told Seth: "I cannot understand why I've never noticed before, he's got more irritating habits than anyone I've ever known - including you, Seth Armstrong!"

Matt Skilbeck (Frederick Pyne) - lovely cardie, but 1989 had it in for the man. His marriage to Dolly was at an end. Frederick Pyne recorded Matt's last scenes in November, and Matt was last seen on-screen in December.

Caroline Bates (Diana Davies) arrived as a temp secretary at NY Estates in 1984. She soon became permanent. Since his arrival in 1982, Alan Turner (Richard Thorp) had been making a proper pig's ear of things on the estate, and Mrs Bates was his saviour. Romance developed and, in 1989, the two planned to wed. But things didn't work out, and Mrs Bates left Beckindale, in tears, in November to look after her ailing mother in Scarborough.

Matriarch Annie Sugden (Sheila Mercier). Her strength finally crumbled in 1989, and she found herself developing a dependency on tranquillisers. Recovering, she faced new heartache - businessman Denis Rigg's underhand attempts to buy the farm, and then the death of her grandson, Jackie.

Archie Brooks (Tony Pitts) - first turned up clutching a ghetto blaster and sporting a hairdo rather like David Sylvian's, of synth pop group Japan, in November 1983. He sported a very natty alphabet jumper for the knitting book in 1989, and temporarily departed from Beckindale in November to live with his mum when the old outbuilding he called home became too draughty.

Uttered In The '80s Part 4 - Eric Pollard And Sandie Merrick - Home Truths?

It was good old Joe Sugden (Frazer Hines) who initially unleashed Eric Pollard (Christopher Chittell) on to the Beckindale district way back in 1986. When Joe turned down his step-niece Sandie Merrick (Jane Hutcheson) for the post of auctioneer at Hotten Market, and employed Pollard instead, he had no idea of just what he was setting in motion.

In 1987, Pollard faced the sack for being "on the fiddle". He blamed Sandie, believing that she had blabbed to Joe simply because she was after his job:

"Take it! It's yours. I would tell you where to put it, but I think a woman of your... morals can probably work it out for yourself!"

It might have been the end of Eric's job... but his reign as Beckindale's man-you-love-to-hate was only just beginning...